


a thousand ways to fall

by Riana1



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Crossover Pairings, F/M, I Blame Tumblr, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Mythical Beings & Creatures, kitchen sink cosmology, summer & winter rites
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-02-26
Updated: 2013-08-26
Packaged: 2017-12-03 16:38:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 4,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/700423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riana1/pseuds/Riana1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once there was a girl in a tower and never being told not to, believed in everything. Then she met a boy no one believed in. And they fell in love. drabbles about jackpunzel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. love is thicker than forget

love is thicker than forget

 

 

He tries to stay.

He /wants/ to stay, curled up with Rapunzel in a contentment that steals his breathe away. A quilt covers them both and Jack skims Rapunzel’s hair as it falls over her shoulder and spills down and around them both to the bedroom floor. He watches his hand curl over her sleeping face and trace small circles and loops over and over in her hair. Jack can almost see the patterns left behind as his fingers play down her back- come and go, come and go.

Jack can hear the winds whistling in the rafters under the crack of melting snow sliding off the roof. Spring is stalking him and he /doesn’t/ want to go but the need for winter and wide open spaces hustles through his head in a constant thum— come and go, go and come back.

He will tell her when she wakes up; Jack decides his fingertips tracing the outline of her jaw and cheek. Rapunzel moves incoherently into his touch nuzzling his hand sleepily.

Tomorrow, Jack thinks, I’ll tell her tomorrow.

***

“I was waiting for the longest time,” she said. “I thought you forgot me.”

“It is hard to forget,” Jack said, reaching down to pull Rapunzel up into his arms, “when there is such an empty space besides me.”

“Much better now,” he murmurs and buries his face in her shoulder.


	2. wholly to be a fool while Spring is in the world

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Spring fever, huh- Aster straighten up suddenly and leveled a gleeful grin at Jack.

wholly to be a fool

while Spring is in the world

 

\- ee cummings

 

Aster has to admit he is more than a little fond of the drafty lil dag (not that the words would cross his lips until after a few pints were in him but Sandy was never on to tell tales over tallies, bless him) but not before his brekkie. Some things were sacred. Aster shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. The others had all counseled patience with Jack Frost citing his youth, flies with honey, yadda, yadda but when Aster finished counting to ten and opened his eyes to find the remains of a snowball still slaughtered over his lovely uneaten greens and laughter drifting from on high only one thought rang out in his mind- he was going to /get/ the little bastard.

 

Aster pressed his lips together in displeasure and glared up Jack. Jack lounged back on wisteria dripping walkway above, staff and frock coat balanced his lap while tossing a snow ball idly with one hand, "A little slow on the up take this morning, Cottontail."

 

Aster gripped the underside of the table until the wood squeaked. He promised May, he promised May, a few weeks until after Beltane, but as much as Aster doted on the newest summer spirit, her devoted swain made it rather... difficult. 'Hijinks into a high art' according to the rather frazzled May Queen, and Aster agreed letting Rapunzel wander the world unprepared and greener than the grass springing under her every step (she won't wear shoes, Konohana confided to him quietly) was asking for trouble. The Warren was an oasis, safe and secure as only the heart of spring could be for a newborn summer spirit; Rapunzel thrived, throwing trails of tulips in her wake as she scampered over every nook and cranny with her hair streaming behind. Half the time, Aster could only find her by searching for the flash of gold against green, Rapunzel spent as much of her time suspended in midair by her hair as she did leaving lines of lilies pell mell over the tunnels. She was a smart sheila, Aster could talk hours with her over the exact shading of blue needed for an egg or her many impromptu murals, but as sweet as Rapunzel was Jack Frost was another matter.

 

Aster released his grip on the table, peeling his paws off one by one; claw marks wouldn't help his case. The boyo wanted Bunnymund to chase him. Jack Frost had cabin fever but wouldn't wander a step out of sight of his lovely young lady and May had exact a promise from Rapunzel not to leave the Warren. Aster snorted softly, he had to admit he had seen canines less steadfast in their devotion than Jack Frost. Maybe it wasn't cabin fever as much as spring fever, Aster thought, especially with the added pressure of being winter born like Jack. Spring fever, huh- Aster straighten up suddenly and leveled a gleeful grin at Jack.

 

Jack felt a chill run down his spine as the Pooka leaped over the soggy remains of his meal and bounded over the open lawn towards the skips of Bethlehem stars running along the open path to the color river. Jack fumbled with his frock coat before dumping the offending piece of clothing on the ground and speeding off after the Pooka. He knew- he /knew/ he was pushing his luck with the rabbit, but Jack itched. The warmth of the Warren did not affect him so much as the temptation of the tunnels- Jack craved open air and the wild wind but Rapunzel couldn't (wouldn't) leave and Jack would rather jump into a volcanic hot spring than separate from her.

 

Clingy they called him, Jack thought and spun around the sitting egg guardian with ease, but no one but him was there that day. His body still betrays him in memory. These days, his stomach clenches at the snap of wet wood and Jack has to curl his toes into the earth to keep from rushing over to wrap his hands around Rapunzel's face and remind himself of the light in her eyes. He never wants to see it go out again.

 

 

Jack somersaulted over the heavy bells of the coloring blossoms and stopped abruptly at the edge of the river bank, explanations imploding in his throat; Rapunzel was walking up to him, no,/sauntering/ with a sway in her hips and a smile on her lips.

 

Jack eeped.

 

She had been practicing with fabricating flowers into clothes, Jack thought dully, because the wrap of lacy ferns was new, she looked sublime with the filigree of fern leaves clinging tightly, wet green with peeks of her naked- Jack jerked his eyes up to some spot behind Rapunzel's head. "Oh, Jack," She laughed and reached for him, gathering him in her arms. Jack nestled into her, burying his face into the fall of her hair until all he knew was her.

 

Jack didn't stir until her fingers began to play on the nape of his neck, tracing the bumps of his spine. Rapunzel glided her fingers up into the ruff of his hair, tugging on them softly. Jack pulled his head back. "Rapunzel," he said, his voice coming from deep inside his throat, just before she pressed her lips to his.

 

Jack promptly forgot how to breathe.

 

The touch of her mouth was tender, remarkably chaste, despite Rapunzel's fervor. She swept her lips across his, peppering little kisses to the corners of his mouth and laid her forehead against his, her eyes green pools that left Jack drowning in open air.

 

"Bunny told me you were feeling restless and didn't want to worry me. It is so sweet that you two wanted to surprise me with an overnight trip in the Eastern tunnels. Opening a tunnel to see the night stars would be wonderful. I miss seeing the sky, but this way we do not have to leave the Warren. You are brilliant, Jack," Rapunzel said, releasing him.

 

"Oh, an overnight under the stars, right," Jack stuttered and stilled. An overnight. Sleeping side by side. With Rapunzel. And the snare of stars above him. Distantly Jack saw Rapunzel moving off happily, planning what kind of picnic to bring, posies spreading in her footsteps, and waving to a shadow on the hill across the river.

 

Jack looked up, his gaze zeroing in on the smug six foot rabbit across the way. "Well played, Bunny, well played," Jack muttered to himself and wondered if he had time enough to sneak away and freeze a waterfall.

 

With him under it.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aussie linggo  
> Dag : a funny person, nerd, goof  
> Tallie : 750ml bottle of beer  
> Brekkie : breakfast 
> 
> May- May Queen, rules over Beltane  
> Konohana- Japanese ruler of springtime and flowers
> 
> And this fic references my 'garland of your crowning glory' in which Rapunzel becomes a summer spirit and the other girls take notice and teach her. (I am firm in my belief that a lot of the Guardians' ignorance of Jack and his situation was a combination of his pride and their devotion to their duties. Sandy seems the closest to Jack but North didn't even know Jack tried to break in to the workshop and Tooth never even met Jack, though her fairies have. The fact she didn't know about his amnesia or the circumstances around his /death/, leads me to believe that the entire mess between Jack and them was a communication breakdown.
> 
> They didn't ask and Jack didn't offer. )
> 
> Rapunzel is technically more of a sun spirit than summer considering her origins but that really is splitting hairs. She falls Mother Nature's justification or more actually May's who I write as an true English rose with mother hen tendencies or in fact a busybody with a sub-specialization in minion communication.
> 
> Rapunzel basically drags Jack to civilizing like she did Eugene in the movie (he and Max have a long happy life together by the way.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote because of this http://ogrodniczka.deviantart.com/art/Cold-375001949 and headcanon says that this is early in Jack and Rapunzel's friendship, properly before the first winter they spent together.

I like my body when it is with your body. It is so quite new a thing. Muscles better and nerves more.  
― E.E. Cummings

This is a fact while Jack is not freezing to the touch, other than his toes especially when Rapunzel would rather laze around in bed and Jack wants to be up and outside but that is neither here nor there; the fact remains the cold is Jack’s native element- 

Rapunzel’s, not so much.

Autumn hadn’t traded in her fancy scarlets for stark whites yet, but the nip in the air began to seep into Rapunzel’s arms. The stars were shyly showing off their grandeur as the sunset fled down into the horizon, but not enough to go stargazing quite yet.

Rapunzel shifted on the ledge, curling her hands beneath her dress to warm them.

"It’s cold," she commented idly.

Jack bit an down an apology; he hadn’t done anything. The chill in the air was not any of his work, just the natural sweep of summer off to more southern climes while winter came down to roost. He still felt responsible for Rapunzel’s discomfort. He flicked his eyes down to his lap. Should he offer to go inside and get a blanket? A mad thought fluttered inside his head, to pull Rapunzel in close- his fingers twisted around his staff nervously. He had been stealing touches from her as soon as he knew she could see him: fooling with her hair, purloining her paints for the snatches of her hands on his, running his toes up her bare leg to get her up and tossing her pillow at his head, any physical contact he dared try and get away with.

It had been so long.

The warmth shocked him more than the curl of the weight against his side. For a moment, Jack forget how to breathe when Rapunzel rested her head and nestled in against him, spooled up in a cocoon of her long hair. “Much better,” she sighed.

Jack leaned back on the ledge and they watched the stars come out.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So tumblr is very good at getting my muse to murder my time. This is because of this (http://cecidcecid.tumblr.com/post/57623245719/nightmare-jack-x-rapunzel-drawing)
> 
> And any version of Dark!Jack and Summer!Rapunzel has me going for my Greek Myths with the Hades/Persephone remix. Is canon compliant as all my other works because reality is malleable so whose to say that Jack doesn't get infected with fearlings and almost plunges the world into a new ice age before Rapunzel offers herself in a hostage exchange.

nevertheless i  
feel that i cleverly am being altered that i slightly am becoming  
something a little different, in fact- ee cummings

 

It is an old story they tell, laid out in the bones of the earth, how spring came back to the world. This not the stolen bride, your grandmother tells you, but the summer queen herself who sold herself willingly to guard all the children of the earth against the cold and the dark.

Once winter came lightly, we frolicked in the snow, made fun in the freezing times because summer would always appear, weaving her flowers in crowns on every tree and bush.

Until the year summer did not come.

Only the cold.

Only death.

My own grandmother spoke with spirits, rabbits under hill and hope, heralds bearing dark tidings of a great battle and a great loss. She never spoke more than that.

Only the summer queen was taken to a tall tower of ice and held captive by the dark king. Some say he always was the dark king and stolen summer away while she picked flowers in a meadow. Some say he slew her lover, the poor winter shepherd, cracking his staff in two. My grandmother told me a great tragedy befell that day and not a word more.

Despite the gallant efforts of many, the summer queen remained locked away until she made the dark king a promise. To come back willingly to his side every year if he let go and bring summer and warmth back to the earth.

The dark king was surprised because she had spurned him at every turn until now.

He asked her why and she spoke of the children. How they curled up and cried in the dark from empty bellies and cold limbs. How they remembered nothing of wonder and joy and only dreamed of sorrow and despair. For the sake of the children, she promised, for they are everything we are and will be, please let me go and I swear to you I will come back.

The dark king relented and summer stepped back into the world.

This is an old story that every grandmother tells, spoken over every cradle, every sleepy head while the white piles high outside the window- ‘remember, hold fast to the faith of summer, believe, believe, believe.’

For outside the door

is the dark and the cold

remember the tale

how summer was sold.

For outside the door

is the cold and the dark

pray to be woken

by the song of the lark.

So to sleep, my love

to dream, my heart

of all who guard you

against the cold and the dark.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack teasing.

It is so quite new a thing. Muscles better and nerves more.  
e. e. cummings 

Rapunzel yelped when Jack pulled her close and then pushed up from the floor. She curled up into his embrace as the curious sensation of weightlessness spooled out of her stomach and into her toes.

"Are you sure you don’t want to come flyin’ with me right now?" Jack whispered against the shell of her ear.

The hairs on her arms stood straight and Rapunzel swallowed, her mouth unexpectedly going dry before she remembered her words.

"P-Pie!"

"Pie?"

Alright /a/ word, Rapunzel squirmed nervously in Jack’s grip, moving herself back more firmly into his lap and adjusting the precarious perch of her legs. They were floating a good twelve feet up from the floor. “Yes, I was attempting to make some apple pie before you decided to bring me up here. If you can wait a little we can share a slice or two before Mother comes back,” Rapunzel continued.

She leaned back against Jack expectantly. She knew Jack to never turned now her cooking (and she worried sometimes, Jack was so lean, all long limbs and fox-fine grace, but she could never fully shake the urge to sit him down and /feed/ him until she couldn’t could his ribs). Rapunzel felt Jack’s arms tighten around her waist and a harsh wheeze tickled her cheek.

"Jack?" Rapunzel asked, twisting to try and face him, an odd bump pushed against her thigh. What in the world is that, Rapunzel thought, maybe Jack’s staff but it doesn’t feel like wood— Rapunzel eeped when the world promptly somersaulted as Jack spun them both to the floor.

"PiewouldbegoodI’llgogetsomeflowersforthetableberightback-"

Rapunzel blinked and huffed her hair out of her face and over her shoulder, still a little dizzy and tried to focus on the suddenly spirit-free room.

Well, that was odd. She steadied herself against the table and began to count out her apples; she would have to hide the flowers in her room again or Mother, unbelieving and blind to Jack, would notice. Rapunzel smiled wistfully, and hugged herself, it was still a nice gesture no matter.


	6. Chapter 6

the truth more first than sun, more last than star...”  
― E.E. Cummings

Jack loves her star stories.

He will sneak Rapunzel out by her skylight and onto the roof (never further from the tower, no matter how her unbridled rapture at an uninterrupted skyline makes Jack want to fly her city on the shore and beyond- she deserves to see the world even if her harridan mother says otherwise, but Jack will not spoil tonight with a fight he knows he will not win).

The night is warm, perfumed with petrichor, and Jack wiggles closer to Rapunzel, letting her relaxing against him. Her stories run wild, animated with sweeping gestures as she describes how the shooting stars- “star-swallows racing across the world to catch silvers of the dawn for their nests, like the house swallows under the western eaves, Jack, wouldn’t that be so beautiful to see, little bright baby birds nestled up under folds of night clouds?”

Jack murmurs a supportive noise become falling back to watching her. She shines brighter than even the stars, he thinks, covertly petting a strip of her long hair beside him, and he bites down on his cheek to keep from blurting the sentiment out and asking Rapunzel to run away with him.

Instead, Jack tugs Rapunzel closer in, allowing her to soak up the chill of his body against the warm August air. I bring her a book on constellations tomorrow, Jack vows, rubbing his hand along the small of her back as Rapunzel points out the newly arrived north star above them, it is not really stealing if I put it back after she finishes reading it.


	7. Chapter 7

we are for eachother: then  
laugh, leaning back in my arms

 

― E.E. Cummings

Rapunzel let out a laugh as Jack pounced on her, pulling her back into a hug. He had been so skittish around her in the autumn, always at arms length, perching on his staff, the rafters, or the back of Mother's chair once as Rapunzel sat and sewed (she ended up finishing about half a seam before giving up and coaxing Jack down with a promise of pie- his cape kept blocking her light and her neck almost got a crick in it).

She had measured it once; during her morning stretches, she oh-so accidentally reach out and nearly brushed Jack's fingers as he leaned on his staff. 

He almost fell over.

Rapunzel froze, a hot rush of remorse flushed her face, and she opened her mouth to apologize, only to giggle as Jack recovered by grabbing a length of her hair and using it as a skipping rope.

Jack loved to make her laugh.

And to play with her hair, she amended, as Jack nuzzled the back of her head.

"What brought this on?" Rapunzel asked.

Jack tightened his grip. "Just 'cause."

"Excellent reason, indeed," Rapunzel said, closing her eyes and reclined back against the winter spirit.


	8. slightly smutty

"kisses are a better fate than wisdom"- ee cummings

Jack moves, jerky and sudden, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her tight to his chest and resting his forehead lightly against hers like he is afraid she might shatter if he breathes wrong. Rapunzel runs her hands over his face, tracing the contours of his cheekbones, the butterfly brush of his closed eyelashes, and the corn silk of his hair. Her heart leaps into her throat, but, her murmurs never rise over a whisper even as Jack shivers imperceptibly when her hands press down, sun-warm, on his shoulder and the nape of his neck.

Rapunzel drifts forward, sliding her head until Jack could feel her exhale against his ear. “You can’t be cold,” she continues, “you’re Jack Frost.”

Jack freezes against her, his arms locked around her waist as if he is terrified she might vanish into thin air. Rapunzel presses closer, the simmering heat beneath her belly infusing every inch of her skin to a near broil, and the only stark sweet relief comes from the touch of Jack against her. 

She feels as if she might burst into flames.

She feels as if might burst apart.

She kisses Jack instead.

He groans against the seal of her mouth on his, his lips dash open, and Rapunzel dares the slightest flicker of her tongue against his perfect teeth. Jack responds by dragging a hand down the ridges of her spine, flushing out the fever-fire in her with a tingly, welcomed relief before clamping down on both sides of her waist with an almost bruising grip.

Rapunzel breaks the kiss, gulping air, and stares into Jack’s dilated eyes, wild and black as a crack in the sea ice. “I won’t break,” she vows, her chest heaving,” I promise.”

Jack shudders. Shudders, in a full body tremble like a beast shaking off hibernation at the tilt of the earth back towards the sun, and he crushes Rapunzel against him as if empty space between them was too much to bear.

Rapunzel can’t help the noise she makes as Jack lifts her up, the insistent deviousness of his strength pulling her up into a giddiness that made her wonder if you could get drunk on kisses. Jack rises, twirling them both in a slow winding spiral up into the air, and proved how much he liked to test the theory with her.


	9. Chapter 9

things which in my mind blossom will  
stumble beneath a clumsiest disguise appear  
capable of fragility and indecision  
― E.E. Cummings

"No, Jack," Rapunzel laughs merrily, "It is one, two, three, turn. You keep trying to swirl me around before I’m ready."

Jack swallows and nods before allowing Rapunzel to set his hands on her again properly and vows to not mess up the count this time- no matter how close he is to Rapunzel or how how marvelously soft her skin is.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jack wearing a flower crown, nuff said.

“suppose  
Life is an old man carrying flowers on his head.”  
― E.E. Cummings

He didn’t say anything when Rapunzel practically moved into the workshop to help with the expansion of the southern gardens (animating ice sculptures with North was always awesome).

He didn’t say anything when he got drafted into the survey teams for hollowing out the glacier (he even learned a few words of yeti-mostly things he couldn’t say in mixed company but it still counts).

He didn’t say thing when he got suckered into baby-sitting the baby reindeer while their pastures were under ‘renovation’ (and Bunny can complain all he wants, it is not ‘cheating’ to get Sandy to help with naptime, Bunny is just mad he didn’t think of it with their mamas).

But this was one indignity Jack Frost would not endure.

"No, I am /not/ wearing a flower crown."

Rapunzel blinked and adjusted her crown of pink roses. “But it is traditional, Jack. The first fruits and flowers are given out to everyone who worked on the project. Everyone is wearing flowers today. Look North wearing his. Even the reindeer are.”

Jack shot a glance at his laughing host petting the calves in the magnificent portable pen held in the center of the room. “North is wearing a crown of holly and the reindeer are all eating their garlands.”

Rapunzel frowned.

"And one elf." Jack continued nonchalantly,"Someone might want to rescue Jingle right now unless you want the reindeer to get their taste for blood this early-"

A yeti rumbled, moving past Rapunzel and towards the pen.

"And I am still not wearing a crown made with purple roses."

Rapunzel turned around to Jack, her green eyes wide and shining. “Those are winter roses, Jack, they bloom even in midwinter.”

Jack was resolute, he was not wearing a flower crown within line of sight of anyone over the age of four (he, Jamie, and Bunny had a gentleman’s agreement- what happen at the tea table stayed at the tea table) and not even Rapunzel could get him to budg-

She smiled up at him.”I grew them especially for you, Jack.”

Jack closed his eyes and let out a defeated sigh,”I will wear the crown. Just stop with the puppy dogs eyes, will you?”

Rapunzel smiled and dropped a kiss on Jack’s cheek before parading off to check on the cornucopia of food along the wall. Jack stared after her, leaning on his staff with a crooked grin on his face when a furry hand came down on his shoulder.

Jack rocked a bit under the weight, the crown of roses dropping into his eyes. He looked up at the approving furry face of Phil and rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, lets go get some pie before the elves eat them all." Jack said, shrugging of the massive paw and whipping his staff casually across his back.

Phil followed, muttering something to Jack. It might have been ‘young love’ or ‘shattering impact from above’ but Jack couldn’t be too sure.

Frankly it amount to the same.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> http://riana-one.tumblr.com/post/58756877335/cecidcecid-hahaha-dark-jack-xd-she
> 
> more Hades and Persephone AU

"of which demons with wings would be streaming if  
something had(maybe they couldn’t  
agree)not happened(and floating-  
ly int

o”  
― E.E. Cummings

She replays the scene a thousand times over.

A oddness in the autumn air, a metallic tang that lingers penny bright on her tongue, but she doesn’t hear, she doesn’t heed, too eager for the equinox, for the surrender of summer to winter’s embrace. Such a fool, she didn’t even think to fight, she hears Jack’s voice and turns…

Rapunzel wonders when the dreams would stop, when she wake and not forget the Jack would never be clad in white again.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> part of the Hades and Persephone fic set for Dark!Jack and Summer!Rapunzel.

Her rooms are well proportion for her: laced with lichen, crowded with crowberry, pillows of polar willows and beds of soft mosses, and even a few bright flares of blushing pink, twinflowers and arctic roses rising defiant in the corners.

A thousand feet of everblooming tundra amongst a thousand miles of dead, white cold, curled in the heart of a towering spire of ice- the irony tastes copper cold in Rapunzel’s mouth. Jack never harmed her even when the darkness swallowed him whole (-drowned him again her memory hisses and no moon to bring him back-) and he stopped when she asked.

When she promised to come with him.

"I promise it will be just like it use to be. Just you and me."


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> my head canon where Rapunzel is a newly born summer spirit and has a problem with fertile feet. And Jack likes to play with that.

":imagine  
somewhere real flowers,but  
I can't imagine real flowers for if I

could,they would somehow  
not Be real"  
\- ee cummings

Sometimes Rapunzel had the oddest sympathy for her mother, her mind skittered away from the dark corners that thought always brought up: the tower, the fall—. Instead she focused on the mumbles coming from Jack, what on earth could he be possibly trying to say to her?

Rapunzel leaned forward, straining to hear sense out of Jack’s cupped hands, when Jack suddenly hooked a hand under her chin and pulled her forward for a kiss.

His lips were cool and slightly chapped and Rapunzel flushed hot, her body seized with a sudden fever that pooled low and hot in her center.

She jerked away from Jack, a blush blooming across her cheeks and growing down across her exposed skin. Jack backed away laughing as Rapunzel raised a hand to her lips and stepped back on a pile of primroses that exploded for yards from where she was standing.

I thought I had that under control, Rapunzel sighed, looking down at the tangle of sweet smelling blossoms at her feet. She stared pointedly at a smiling Jack, perched on his staff like a merry magpie with a stolen shiny, and blushed an deeper pink, but Jack does like to test it every which way.


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Jack and Rapunzel as Hades and Persephone.

“Really unreal world, will you perhaps do  
the breathing for me while I am away?”  
― E.E. Cummings

He is impossibly gentle with her and it breaks her heart.

The darkness consumes all the light but her own and it is never suffocating; Jack lingers, stroking her hair and tracing the edges of her bones with his fingertips, an almost ticklish touch airing over her collarbones and up the column of her throat (his hand curls under her chin and Rapunzel wonders if he will pull her in for a kiss and what she will do if he does).

He doesn’t.

(She remembers stealing kisses under evergreens and apple trees and wonders if there are any left in the world).


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hades!Jack and Persephone!Rapunzel
> 
> I can’t see Rapunzel being dark, not being conceived by a drop of sunlight, but I can see her being /dangerous/ as only the verdant, viral growth of an unlimited summer can be.

“i go you go,my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling)”  
― E.E. Cummings

What goes together better than cold and dark- the question hovers in your ears like a taunt, a test, a testimonial against autumn affections and springtime sentiments when you spent each other recklessly in the shadow of the equinox.

Summer, you want to shout, and winter, snowball fights and running barefoot in the grass- the weight of your hand in mine, you whisper and watch a shudder ripple through the shadows trailing Jack like a stone skipped over a pond.

You reach out.

And the darkness drowns you both.


End file.
